[align center]
**photographs from the summer of '87**
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an <a href="https://artwithoutblood.com/">art without blood</a> story by <a href="https://catsket.itch.io/">catsket</a>
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made for the 2023 bare bones jam
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[[content warnings]]
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[[-`♡´-]][align center]
*Seated in front of you is a book you found when scouring the dusty corner of a roadside antique store. The cover is a worn red, aged with cracks and dust sprinkled across its leather. Written on a faded sticker in the center is one phrase: Summer of 1987.*
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*[[You don't know why you bought it.]] Perhaps it was the allure of a haunted photo album. Perhaps it was to show off to friends. Perhaps it was to collect memories of a dead friend group or an aging couple that were left behind. You wonder if the owners are dead and only live on through the pictures in this album.*
[align center]
Summer of 1987.
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Photographs by Adonis D'Amour.
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If lost, please return to ████████
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[[→|third]][align center]
"Trip"
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*6/25*
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A view from a bus window of oak trees dotted throughout the Appalachians. The sky is cloudy, begging for rain. A bird soars above, small enough to be mistaken for a speck of dust.
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[[←|next]] ❀ [[→|fourth]][align center]
"Pretty..."
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*6/25*
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Resting on the finger of the photographer is a pineville swallowtail butterfly, with its royal blue wings and ring of yellow like a broken pearl necklace. In the background is a blurred gas station.
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[[←|third]] ❀ [[→|fifth]] [align center]
"Nature trail"
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*6/25 and 6/26*
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A series of photographs of the woods. One is of the refraction of light rays through the trees above. Another is an up-close shot of fungus growing on the side of a dead tree. Squirrels. Insects. Bones. Butterflies. As the photographs continue, the sky grows darker, until five photographs in the a row are only of darkness.
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[[←|fourth]] ❀ [[→|sixth]][align center]
*You haven't opened the album yet. No, you waited. You asked the woman at the counter with her brittle fingers and wrinkled face what was inside. She said she had never seen the book before. Anything that doesn't have a tag on it is $3. You say that's a steal for something so mysterious and precious.*
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*[[You open the book.|next]]*[align center]
"Today's sunrise"
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*6/26*
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The sun peaks from behind a mountain covered in green. Fog rests over what sprawling land can be seen.
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[[←|fifth]] ❀ [[→|seventh]][align center]
"Trek to the city"
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*6/26*
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The next few photographs are of foggy roadsides and lines of trees. One features a broken down car of a make and model you do not recognize. It is covered in vines and soot, as if it had been rotting in its metal carcass for decades. The mist tries its best to obscure the rust.
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These pages smell like ash and coal. It reminds you of Centralia and its eternal fires.
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[[←|sixth]] ❀ [[→|8]][align center]
"Self portrait"
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*6/27*
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A person holds the camera up to a mirror in a public bathroom. This is the first view you receive of the photographer. Black hair framed perfectly around their angled face. Eyes obscured by round sunglasses tinted red like the planet Mars. Black lipstick. Pale skin. An outfit of ruffles and crosses and heavy fabric, not meant for the summer weather.
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You assume this is Adonis D'Amour.
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[[←|seventh]] ❀ [[→|9]][align center]
"Museum trip"
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*6/28*
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The steps to an art museum are laced with crowds, posing in front of statues, waiting for the bus, checking their tickets for the right time to enter the building. All faces and motions are blurred.
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This page smells like old paper.
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[[←|8]] ❀ [[→|10]][align center]
"Exhibits"
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*6/28*
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Various art installations are photographed over the next few pages. Paintings of Jesus Christ with holes in his hands that beg to be filled not by nails but by worms. Sculptures of dead poets and their muses. Bowls and weapons and cups and knives.
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Sometimes other viewers are captured as well. Sometimes they match the paintings they're staring at.
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But one picture seems different from the rest.
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[[←|9]] ❀ [[→|11]][align center]
"█████"
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*6/28*
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This photograph features a painting of a person bathing in androgyny, hands folded and resting in their lap. Piercing red eyes glisten against the fallout of black eyeshadow. Cream-colored hair and matching geometric tattoos contrast against dark skin. Their smile is bright even without teeth, almost as bright as the metal buckles and spikes that decorate their black outfit.
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And right next to the painting is the exact same figure, sitting in the same pose, staring directly at a camera that no one else seems to notice.
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[[←|10]] ❀ [[→|13]][align center]
"New friend"
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*6/28*
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The stranger now sits across from the photographer at a bar. Bright lights frame them in an aura that feels ethereal, even with the sweat on the skin and the revealing outfit. It's a candid shot, with the stranger's eyes closed and smile baring sharp teeth.
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Next to this photograph is a name. "Aeron."
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A portrait done in ballpoint pen of Adonis is attached to this page.
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[[←|11]] ❀ [[→|14]][align center]
"A delightful evening"
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*6/28*
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Aeron has the camera this time, taking a photograph of Adonis holding a B-52 in their hand. Another is taken of Adonis talking to a man at the bar whose facial features have been lost to age. Despite everything else, from clothes to hairstyles, screaming 1980s, this bar feels much, much older.
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The most colorful on the page is one taken of the two of them in the bar's bathroom, laughing, faces red from either happiness or liquor.
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The page smells like bourbon and cigar smoke.
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[[←|13]] ❀ [[→|12]][align center]
"For a date"
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*6/30*
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Adonis takes a picture in the mirror of their attire for the day. A tank top with some forgotten garage band is layered with a cardigan that drapes off their shoulders. Ankle-length pants with a wide cut are matched with a studded belt and a familiar eye necklace. It seems no matter the occasion, the red sunglasses stayed.
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[[←|12]] ❀ [[→|16]][align center]
"Visit to ██████"
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*6/30*
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Aeron sits on a rock overlooking other visitors to a park. Their knees are to their chest, head tilted to the camera. They stare into the camera, putting each streak of a different, vibrant shade of red on display for the photographer. Black eyeshadow brightens the whites of their eyes, tinted red; not with substances, but with something that glows like a firefly. Their arm covers the lower half of their face, so their true expression is unknown.
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They're beautiful.
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[[←|15]] ❀ [[→|17]][align center]
"Good morning"
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*6/30*
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The view from a hotel room at dawn, with streaks of pink and orange against a fading black sky. The lights of the city cannot fare against the power of the atmosphere. Not a single cloud dares to ruin this picture.
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Another photograph is an artistic picture of a cup of coffee next to a book. The page is opened to diagrams of flora. You are not sure what flowers they are, but the drawing looks old.
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[[←|14]] ❀ [[→|15]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*6/30-7/6*
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A collection of headshots of people, each dated over the course of a week. There are no names attached. The portraits are as follows:
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[[←|17]] ❀ [[→|19]][align center]
"So much is alive here"
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*6/30*
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Pictures of wildlife in the park. The photographer reaches a hand out to feed a squirrel some nuts. Worms wrangle around in freshly-turned dirt. A moth at the wrong time of day lands on Aeron's hand. The remains of a half-gutted bird litter a trail of gravel. In one, a Rough Collie is sniffing the camera, its nose barely fogging up the lens.
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Trees are in full bloom in the summertime. On some grow small mushrooms. Aeron hands the cameraman a dandelion picked from between the concrete of a nearby sidewalk.
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[[←|16]] ❀ [[→|18]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*6/30*
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A man in his mid-thirties sits with broken glasses and a scar across his lip. His hair is tied up in a messy bun, stray strands of brown falling over his eyebrows. He hasn't shaved in days. The red marks from previous scratches still remain. His eyes are worn, sunken, tired, red from the day's exhaustion.
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[[←|18]] ❀ [[→|20]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*7/1*
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A woman in her early 60s, with gray barely growing in her hairline. Half of her face is shadowed by a sunhat, decorated with real-life flowers around the base. One of the teeth on her upper jaw is missing, with lipstick smudged on her canines.
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[[←|19]] ❀ [[→|21]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*7/2*
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A person in their 20s with the wildest hair displayed thus far. Dark eye makeup contrasts against white skin. Black lipstick, black hair, black eyes, and black clothes make them stand out from the rest of the light foliage that dances behind them. A string of blood sticks to their left nostril.
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[[←|20]] ❀ [[→|22]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*7/2*
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A young girl, maybe ten or so, with a baseball cap on and a black eye. Her curly hair is tied into two pigtail-like buns. She's smiling brighter than the sun that shines behind her. Sweat sticks like dandelion seeds.
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[[←|21]] ❀ [[→|23]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*7/4*
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A young man with long, black hair adjusts the rectangular glasses that perfectly frame his jaw. It looks like a candid shot, as his eyes are narrowed and his mouth is open in the middle of a sentence, threatening to open the wound on his busted lip. It looks fresh.
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[[←|22]] ❀ [[→|24]][align center]
"Portraits"
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*7/6*
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The prettiest woman you have ever seen looks down at a red spiderlily that is the same shade as her eyes. White hair, milky skin, red lips, and red eyeshadow, all fit for a face so full of love.
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[[←|23]] ❀ [[→|25]][align center]
"Roadtrip"
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*7/9*
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A view from the passenger's seat of an old car. Aeron is driving, Adonis's red sunglasses flicked over their eyes, face turned towards the road. Cherry earrings dangle from their lobes. Lipstick is smudged past their lips. Outside the window is an endless sea of trees.
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This page smells like gasoline and dirt.
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[[←|24]] ❀ [[→|26]][align center]
"Roadkill"
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*7/11*
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The innards of a deer stretch from one end of the road to another, red and worn as the ribbon at the end of a marathon. Its mouth is agape, legs reaching out for grass on the other side that it would never feel in life.
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The kill looks old, not made by the two throughout the book so far.
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[[←|25]] ❀ [[→|27]][align center]
"Gross."
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*7/11*
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A series of photographs of Aeron. They pry open the dull sockets of the deer and pull each of its eyes out. Aeron holds the the eyes in the palm of their hands. Its fluids form a pool on top of the skin. They're smiling.
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In another picture, they hold up a bloody rag with something inside. They look like a child holding their first goldfish in a plastic bag to the camera.
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[[←|26]] ❀ [[→|28]][align center]
"Clear skies"
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*7/12*
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A look at the sky. The stars are brighter than in any modern photograph you've seen. Spotted through various photographs are the tops of trees.
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Adonis sits at a campfire, holding a metal mug in their hands. Oh, how they gaze with dead eyes into the fire, only illuminated by the flames which dance in front of them.
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[[←|27]] ❀ [[→|29]][align center]
"█████"
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*7/12*
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A pale hand is splayed over another person's bare chest. On their dark skin is a cream-colored tattoo of a cross. The next photograph shows the hand - presumably Adonis's - attempting to trace the pattern, but a blur of motion reaches for Adonis's wrist.
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A note is written next to this picture. *I can only cut this in emergencies. Sort of suspicious that you want to touch me right there anyways?*
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Another note in a different handwriting. *You are so mean to me!*
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[[←|28]] ❀ [[→|30]][align center]
<b>this game includes the following content. if you are made uncomfortable during your play, please close the game and take a break.</b>
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-animal violence
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-human and animal death
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-descriptions of gore, violence, and torture
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-cannibalism
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-implied sexual themes (nothing explicit)
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[[return|start]][align center]
"Friends?"
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*7/13*
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Photographs of deer. Families - small packs of them - standing in the treeline. Each of their eyes glow, even in the sunlight. The babies still have their spots. Some of them, at least. It seems their fur patterns change.
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[[←|29]] ❀ [[→|31]][align center]
"Pit stop"
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*7/15*
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Two people take a self portrait in the bathroom of a gas station. The mirror is dirty, soaked in a grease lost to man. They look tired but happy in their smeared makeup, messy hair, red shades.
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The next few pictures are of each of them causing mischief in a gas station's convenience store. Adonis mixes various flavors of soft drink into one cup. Aeron tries on cheap sunglasses and nearly breaks a pair.
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[[←|30]] ❀ [[→|32]][align center]
"Heaven"
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*7/15*
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An unopened can of Dr. Pepper. Condensation collects on the metal prison that cages the soda.
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[[←|31]] ❀ [[→|33]][align center]
[align center]
"Too hot!!!!"
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*7/18*
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A series of photographs at a river. Aeron is stripped down to only their pants. Their body is covered in cream-colored geometric tattoos, all of which seem to glow against their dark body. They splash the camera. They stand on a rock with their hand over their eyes, staring at the sun.
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And no matter how long they stare at it, no matter how many pictures it spans, it seems like their own eyes only burn brighter.
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[[←|32]] ❀ [[→|34]][align center]
"Aren't they cute?"
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*7/18*
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The label for this photograph is written in a different person's handwriting. Handwriting that is less stable, less uniform, but somehow more pleasant to the eyes.
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Adonis sleeps with their shades on, curled up like a small child in a sleeping bag. For the night, they have shed their modest dress, claiming instead a tank top. Their veins, sprawling over their skin, crawling up their arms, are as dark as the sky overhead.
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[[←|33]] ❀ [[→|35]][align center]
"Wildflowers"
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*7/21*
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A series of photographs of flowers. Turk's cap lily with its brown spots and yellow petals. Goldenrod on stems, how it looks like foam and mold making home in corners of old buildings. Gentian roses of shades of pink, whose centers look like graveyards for bees.
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This page smells like dirt and fresh grass.
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[[←|34]] ❀ [[→|36]][align center]
"Dinner. Thanks, A."
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*7/21*
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The remains of a deer lay scattered on the campsite floor. Well-cooked venison sits in pots and in bowls, layered with herbs and leaves likely picked from the greenery nearby. Aeron sits against a log and watches the flames dance.
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*The way their eyes stare emptily makes it seem like they don't know they're being photographed. But somehow you know that they know. And they know that you know. Everyone knows, and everyone who does not will end up knowing.*
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[[←|35]] ❀ [[→|37]][align center]
"Sleepy boy..."
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*7/24*
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Adonis is sleeping in the back seat of the car. Their body basks in the glow of golden hour. Even here, the shades stay on.
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[[←|36]] ❀ [[→|38]][align center]
"A treat after a long night"
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*7/26*
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A self portrait of two subjects, taken in the reflection of a pond. Lilypads frame their outlines. Details are hard to make out on their figures, but their bodies are shaded mostly with stunning hues of red. Brown and white peak out every so often. The water of the pond is clear, but it does not aid in visual clarity.
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[[←|37]] ❀ [[→|39]][align center]
"█████"
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*7/26*
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One of the first uses of the timer found in the book.
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Aeron and Adonis stand in the center of the frame. It is dark outside, and the moon sits directly between their heads. Shadows made from branches and leaves obscure parts of their bodies. A family of five deer surround them, enveloping them in a circle. No one wears an expression. Everyone's eyes light up but Aeron's. The deer's glow like they are reflecting the light of the flash. Adonis's glow behind the shades like there is something luminescent behind the sockets.
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[[←|38]] ❀ [[→|40]][align center]
"Nice job, asshole"
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*7/29*
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A car is severely wrecked. Its windshields are completely shattered. Pieces of the car body are dented with black paint peeling off the sides. Especially the front, which is smashed inward, torn of its bumpers. The engine is smoking, blocking out the sun.
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This page smells like smoke and oil.
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[[←|39]] ❀ [[→|41]][align center]
"Seriously?"
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*7/29*
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Aeron sits against a tree that is half fallen, likely from the colission. Part of their face is missing - from the corner of their right eye to the middle of their mouth - leaving only flesh that looks rotted, expired. A large animal is splattered across the road. Whatever it was is forever lost, for its meat is mangled far past identification.
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Adonis turns the camera towards themselves for a self portrait. An annoyed expression masks their face. Blood is smeared across their red sunglasses and their lips.
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[[←|40]] ❀ [[→|42]][align center]
"Give me that Glasgow smile."
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*7/30*
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A headshot of Aeron. No effort has been made to clean their face of the gore. Gums and muscle and blood and all reveal themselves to the camera. Teeth aren't missing, but they're tossed, mixed crudely into the scene. It looks like flesh is attempting to crudely grow over them.
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Nonetheless, they smile.
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[[←|41]] ❀ [[→|43]][align center]
"Time for repairs"
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*7/30*
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A series of photographs of a white 1983 Pontiac 6000. A man and a woman, likely in their early 20s, drive from forest to gas stations. They pump gas, get snacks from the convenience store, drive until the trees stop and the fields grow.
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The couple is not aware that they are being photographed.
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[[←|42]] ❀ [[→|44]][align center]
"██ █████"
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*8/1*
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Pictures of a house on empty farmland. There are no other signs of civilization in sight. All that leads to it is a dirt road, where a Pontiac is parked. Each door and window is photographed. Whatever messages were written on the photographs are now wiped away.
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Sometimes in the windows are silohuettes. Undressing, cigarette smoking, dancing, sleeping, helpless staring out the window and hoping for a change.
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[[←|43]] ❀ [[→|45]][align center]
"Objects"
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*8/2*
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Two people, a man and a woman, sit with their limbs tied. They sit with their backs against painted wood, where below there is only dirt and dirtied planks. Their facial features are not given the same restraint as their body parts. No eyes are covered, no mouths gagged.
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Their wounds are light: identical nosebleeds, small cuts around the collarbone from a struggle.
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[[←|44]] ❀ [[→|46]][align center]
"Tools"
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*8/2*
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A series of weapons, laid out in a line on the floor. From left to right:
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-A jet black knife whose hilt glows with white etchings
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-A screwdriver
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-A woodcutting axe
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-A pocket knife with the initials *ADA* carved into the blade
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-A power drill with five additional drill bits
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-A pair of pliers
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[[←|45]] ❀ [[→|47]][align center]
"█████"
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*8/2*
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Adonis takes a self portrait with the girl, sitting behind her and holding her jaw to the camera. She now dons a black eye, and her gaze is somewhere in the far distance. Some of the hair has been ripped from her scalp.
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[[←|46]] ❀ [[→|48]][align center]
"█████"
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*8/2*
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Aeron holds the man's face close to their own. Their noses barely brush against one another. The flash from the camera only makes Aeron's face injury even more noticable, as the flesh shines with secretions.
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In the next photograph, their faces are pulled together. It isn't a kiss, no - they are connected by strings of meat, yellow and thick like fat. It conjoins their faces from the corners of their eyes to the middle of their lips.
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[[←|47]] ❀ [[→|49]][align center]
"█████"
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*8/2*
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A close-up of this attachment, this joining of gore. The man's face starts to ripple, as if made of hot wax exposed to intense flame. His nose is collapsed, and his mouth twisted into a grotesque, half-melted grin. His eyes have been liquified, leaving only hollow sockets that are collecting black and brown fluids.
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Aeron's face drips with wax-like tears and bile. This page smells like fire and burning rubber.
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[[←|48]] ❀ [[→|50]][align center]
"█████"
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*8/2*
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The man is on the floor now, face an unrecognizable mound of flesh more akin to that of a mannequin exposed to flame. A useless puddle of distorted features, absent of anything to identify him with.
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In another photograph, Aeron, who is sitting on top of the man's body, turns towards the camera. The wound on their face has disappeared, and their skin instead glows with the radiance of the sun. They smile, eyes closed, caught in a laugh for a joke lost to time.
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[[←|49]] ❀ [[→|51]][align center]
"Well, of course we made her watch"
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*8/2*
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Another series of photographs. Adonis uses one hand to hold the woman's eyes open and another to hold her head straight. The tears down her face and the new flush of redness indicates she may have tried to struggle before. It does not look like she has the energy to try anymore.
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The way she is is caressed is like a mother trying to calm down a crying child. And perhaps it actually worked.
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[[←|50]] ❀ [[→|52]][align center]
"██████████"
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*8/2*
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All that's here is viscera. Up-close pictures of red and brown and black. A hand reaches into a man's chest cavity, pulled open with hooks. Someone has found a hammer and nails and are using them to pin the man's body to a wall.
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Perhaps that didn't work. In another picture, the drill is pulled out. Bits are changed out in favor of larger, thicker ones. One is just of an axe, covered in fluids, and the remnants of an amputated leg sitting far in the background.
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[[←|51]] ❀ [[→|53]][align center]
"Finished piece"
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*8/2*
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Strung to the wall like a crucifixtion of some god lost to the time is the man without a face, nailed by the arms and by the palms. Both of his legs are missing. His entrails spill from holes carefully cut in his stomach and his chest. His heart isn't present in his chest anymore, no - that has been discarded on the floor, barely out of sight in the picture. Instead, the hole is filled with a wooden picture frame. The flash from the photograph completely obscures the picture inside.
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That is no longer a man.
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[[←|52]] ❀ [[→|54]][align center]
"Finished piece...and the artist!"
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*8/2*
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Aeron stands next to the corpse, smiling, kicking one foot up behind them, holding one hand towards the camera for a peace sign.
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[[←|53]] ❀ [[→|55]][align center]
"Which one?"
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*8/2*
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The photographer and the subject are switched now. Adonis sits in front of the woman. In one hand, they hold a boxcutter. In another, they hold a knife.
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A note is written next to the photograph. *What are we, simple men with simple lives? Why limit ourselves to power tools? Why not rip the flesh apart with our own teeth?*
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[[←|54]] ❀ [[→|56]][align center]
"They didn't want me to photograph the process"
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*8/2*
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Adonis sits criss-crossed on the floor. The entire bottom half of their face is coated in liquid, sometimes clear, sometimes red. It drips onto the white shirt they are wearing. In one photogrpah, they seem upset at this revelation.
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Multiple parts of the woman have been gnawed away at. Her face (specifically her cheeks and her mouth). Her collarbone and her neck (which now expose the complicated threads of her arteries). Her arms and her shoulders (left with red bite marks). Her thighs and calves (picked clean).
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[[←|55]] ❀ [[→|57]][align center]
"Final work"
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*8/2*
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The man is nailed to the wall. The woman is slumped below him. Aeron and Adonis stand on either side of the couple with their arms folded over their torso. Adonis's eyes glow. The rest do not.
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[[←|56]] ❀ [[→|58]][align center]
"Nice..."
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*8/2*
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Adonis sits in a bathtub, illuminated by candlelight. They're drinking what looks to be wine while gazing out the window. The view is of nothing but farmland and trees.
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Even here, the glasses stay on, and the bubbles obscure their body.
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[[←|57]] ❀ [[→|59]][align center]
"Don't really like anything in their closets."
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*8/3*
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Various photographs of Adonis wearing different outfits. Some are much more masculine (and way too big for them), and their face scrunches in disgust. Large t-shirts, ugly jeans. When they try on more feminine outfits, whether it be lacy dresses or frilly tops, they don't seem to like those either (and the fit is way too small). Somehow, they still manage to stay modest, covering their entire body save for their hands and neck.
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Ultimately, they seem to settle for a pair of worn jeans and a blouse.
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[[←|58]] ❀ [[→|60]][align center]
"Road trip."
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*8/6*
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In the dirt driveway, Aeron sits on a 1983 Pontiac 6000. The truck is popped open, filled with bags and items wrapped in newspaper. They lift their head towards the sun and stare at its beauty.
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[[←|59]] ❀ [[→|61]][align center]
"The drive"
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*8/7*
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Various photographs taken from the passenger's seat. Of big houses, of wildlife that crosses the road, of trees and rivers and cliffsides.
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Sometimes, Adonis takes pictures of their driver, whose skin is still glowing miraculously.
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[[←|60]] ❀ [[→|62]][align center]
"Another hot day"
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*8/8*
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The two of them take turns with photographing one another at a lake. Adonis is found swimming, pointing at native plants and wildlife. Aeron sits at the dock.
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Three pictures show an attempt on Aeron's part to drown Adonis. One hand wraps around their throat, keeping them under. Adonis makes no struggle. Their skin turns blue, and their veins darken, turning black. Bubbles obscure their face.
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[[←|61]] ❀ [[→|63]][align center]
"I like it when you hurt me"
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*8/8*
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And then the two are laughing. Adonis's skin is purple, and they sit in the grass while covering their mouth, unable to contain their laughter.
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Underneath their white clothes, now drenched and covered in algae, is a pale body riddled with strings of black, like tree roots, connecting each limb and nerve together in a brilliant display of biology.
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[[←|62]] ❀ [[→|65]][align center]
"We'll have fun again"
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*8/11*
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Inside a shitty motel room, Aeron's back is facing the camera as they lay on a twin-sized bed. *You know they aren't asleep.* A small note, a few loose photographs, and a pair of sunglasses are left next to them on the night stand. The sun's rays are just beginning to pour into the room.
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This page smells like vanilla and patchouli.
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[[←|63]]
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[[You close the book.]][align center]
*There are more pages. Many more. You do not care. You will burn this book, maybe. Throw it into a river and let the fish eat the pages. Give it for free, with frenzy in your eyes, to some old woman who collects and sells haunted items.*
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*Turning it into authorities is not worth it. The case is old, and the perpetrators are even older.*
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[[*But part of you believes that last part isn't true.*|start]][align center]
"Just this once, between the two of us"
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*8/10*
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A timed photograph. Aeron and Adonis wrap themselves around each other in a warm embrace. The moon is larger than usual behind them. A knife sits directly in Aeron's chest, where the cross would be, but there is no blood. There is only black liquid and the beginnings of fog.
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On their cheek appears to be a third eye. It looks directly at the camera.
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*It looks directly at you.*
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[[←|63]] ❀ [[→|64]]